


Roland

by scullywolf



Series: TXF: Scenes in Between [23]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-03
Updated: 2015-08-03
Packaged: 2018-04-12 21:52:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4496061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scullywolf/pseuds/scullywolf





	Roland

_Mulder: This is the work of Arthur Grable, Roland’s brother. It’s a new theory of jet propulsion, unfinished at the time of his death. In the last two weeks, Roland has completed the calculations._  
_Mrs. Stodie: How?_  
_Scully: We’re not sure, Mrs. Stodie. All we know is that Roland was somehow able to finish his brother’s research._

Truth be told, he was irked. Not hugely irked, but he didn’t understand why Scully had cut him off like that, how she could claim they weren’t sure about the reasons behind Roland’s actions of the past two weeks. How much more evidence could she possibly need?

He tried to be an adult about it, managed to curb the impulse to contradict her in front of Mrs. Stodie, but when they got in the car to drive back over to the field office, he couldn’t bite his tongue any longer.

“How could you have any doubt about the psychic connection between Arthur and Roland? What other possible explanation could there be for what we witnessed last night?”

Scully looked at him with eyebrows raised. “Well, there is plenty we don’t know about the human brain. It’s not unheard of for an individual to display unusual or previously unknown abilities while suffering from some sort of dissociative episode.”

“Oh, come on,” he scoffed. “To this degree? We’re talking about nearly a hundred-point jump in IQ here. There’s no way that happens by mere coincidence, and in a person with no previous history of dissociation.”

“Is it really all that much less plausible than what you’re suggesting?” she asked. “Setting aside your biases and beliefs, can you honestly say that ‘psychic control by a cryogenically-preserved brain’ is any more credible an explanation than ‘undiscovered organic neurological condition’?”

“Yes! Because we observed  _multiple_  things to support the former and  _none_  to support the latter.” He hit the gas a little harder than was probably warranted as he pulled away from the curb. “If you can’t see that, then you’re just willfully refusing to believe.”

She sighed. “Mulder, I’m not actually saying that it’s hard to understand the conclusions that you’ve drawn here. In all honesty, I don’t have any better explanation for how Roland was able to finish Arthur’s work. All I am saying is that the very nature of that explanation makes it impossible to prove conclusively. There was nothing measurable, nothing concrete, nothing we can reasonably point to as incontrovertible proof.”

“Yet you believe in God. What incontrovertible proof do you have of that?”

“When have you ever heard me claim God’s existence is an undeniable fact? Believing something and asserting that it is the objective truth are two very different things.”

Mulder clenched his jaw in frustration. She wasn’t  _wrong_ , but did she really need to be so damned oppositional about every little thing? Would it kill her to just once buy into the most plausible explanation instead of always hedging?

“Mulder, for what it’s worth, working with you… seeing the things I’ve seen… it’s made me a lot more open to extreme possibilities than I ever imagined I’d be.”

“Yeah, but you won’t admit to that anywhere that someone might hear you,” he said bitterly. “Don’t you think Mrs. Stodie deserved more than ‘We’re not sure’? Don’t you think she deserved some reassurance that Roland wasn’t going to relapse now that Arthur’s brain has been destroyed?”

“And do you honestly believe that she would have derived any comfort from a paranormal explanation? Mulder, she would have looked at both of us like we were lunatics, and I’m not saying that because I’m worried about reputation. But it’s  _critical_  that we retain some perspective here. I mean, it’s not a lie to say that we’re not sure because as much as you or I might believe something, without verifiable physical evidence, it can only remain that: a belief. And not an easy one to swallow for someone who hasn’t seen the things we’ve seen. So why muddy the water and destroy any credibility we may have, just for the sake of airing every little outrageous detail?”

“Because at least then we’re telling the truth. It doesn’t do anybody any good to ignore the most plausible explanation just because it happens to be paranormal in nature. These phenomena occur all the time, yet they remain so unbelievable to people because no one is willing to admit when they’ve encountered something that can’t be explained away by conventional science. And isn’t that the whole point of scientific exploration? To expand the boundaries of what we know to be true, to challenge the status quo, to take human knowledge to the next level?”

He pulled the car into the parking garage beneath the Seattle field office; he and Scully flashed their badges to the gate guard, who waved them through. When he’d parked the car and shut it off, he looked over at his partner, who was watching him with an almost thoughtful expression on her face.

“I think,” she said slowly, “that there is a time and a place to challenge the status quo, and that talking with Mrs. Stodie today was neither the time nor the place. It wouldn’t have achieved any of the things you’re hoping for. Not only would she not have believed us, but it would have damaged her trust in us, in the institution we represent. Like it or not, we are still representatives of the FBI every time we are out in the field. And I know you’re no fan of Bureau politics, but Mulder… if Skinner and McGrath and Blevins and whoever else are already so determined to shut us down, why go out of your way to hand them the means to do so? Isn’t it enough that we believe something happened, without trying to prove it to people who would never understand? When it’s impossible to prove, anyway?”

“It’s only impossible if we refuse to try,” he said stubbornly, still too grumpy to admit that she was probably right.

It wasn’t until much later that he registered the fact that she’d said  _we believe_ , not _you believe_.


End file.
